Re: Taxpayers pay for the HAJ Pilgrimage ?

[Padmanabha Rao K V <kvprao@igidr.ac.in>]

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( I would like to add to Mr.Umesh's note, the fact of indirect subsidy
extended to the piligrims on the Amarnath and other trails. But that's
exactly the point!)

India has been a communalistic nation for a long time thanks to the
'secular' philosophy that informed and continues to inform the hallowed
mind of the Indian National Congress and probably the other parties too by
virtue of timidity.  The support to Haaj piligrims reeks of communalism
and that is antithetical to the objectives and philosophy of IPI.  I
think, as a Party, IPI should clearly and briefly articulate its ideation
of a secular society.  I say briefly because it's a simple and fundamental
thought, and therefore can be defined emphatically with minimal words
(indeed the more words we apply for a definition, the farther away it gets
from being understood and therefore being practiced and that's exactly the
process obtaining today; hence the plea to be brief and simple about it).

The genesis of such programs as with the Haaj lies in the attitude the
nation has adopted towards the minority communities, namely that of
APPEASEMENT.  And that speaks for the definition given, by the majority or
their (mis)representatives, to the word "secular".  So long such
appeasements remain our secularity will be a mask, and if anything
contribute to communalism. 

Religion is absolutely political, in the sense that it permeates each and
every member of the polity (including the atheist and the agnostic whose
religion is that very idea they hold; obviously I am making no distinction
between religion and philosophy as generally understood and that is, I
think, true). Given this, it is horrendous that the polity should favour a
particular community in any manner. A polity would favour EVERY community
no matter how small (the Todas of Niligiris?) or how big (the Hindus), and
in practice, effect and policy this would translate to even handedness in
everything processed by the Government.

Any comments?

/rao



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